Flaked Grain
No doubt you have seen assorted flaked grains at the homebrew shop or on a mail order website. Corn (or “maize,” if you prefer), oats, rice, wheat, barley and rye are the most common. Flaked grains are simply raw grains that have been gelatinized, flattened and dried. They are ready to use in a mash and, like raw versions, must be mashed with malted grain as they lack the requisite amylase for conversion. I cringe when I see flaked grain listed with specialty malt as the steeping portion of extract recipes. Once again, the flakes are contributing nothing but messy, useless starch.
The good news about flakes is that they can be added directly to the mash without any further middling, and will literally disappear. Use the same parameters as raw grain regarding grist percentage, mash manipulation and lautering considerations. Flaked, or rolled oats, can be purchased at any grocery store and even at 10 percent will add a noticeable creamy viscosity to the head and mouthfeel of a brew.
Rye has become perhaps the most popular flaked grain in the past few years and shows up in everything from pale ale to bock. Not only does it add the silkiness that oats does, but it also has a fairly distinct flavor. A classic Irish dry stout recipe would include 10 percent roasted barley, 65 percent English pale ale malt and 25 percent flaked barley. Flaked maize is used in many an English or Belgian ale on the commercial level, so if you can put Reinheitsgebot bias aside for a recipe or two, incorporate up to 20 percent into your next batch. Torrified wheat is found at nearly every homebrew ingredient purveyor. It is raw wheat that has been heat treated to the same effect as flaking, similar to puffed cereal.
Malted Grain
Brewers are well aware that wheat, rye and oats also come in malted form. They are worth mentioning here, as there is bit to know about using them. Being a base malt, they have the enzymatic muscle to pull their own weight in a mash, so it is possible to back off on barley malt if you want make a beer of rye or wheat malt plus raw or flaked grain. Generally, wheat and rye malt are used in conjunction with barley malt to create classic weizen or roggenbier, respectively. Even in malted form they contain no husk, so be wary of the dreaded stuck mash by using rice hulls, especially with rye. Their use goes well beyond the traditional though, as many brewers have made obvious in recent years. The robust, spicy flavor and full body of rye works well in barley wine, imperial stout, and even a bottom-fermented, Munich and rye malt-accented “roggenbock.” It would be wise to employ a step infusion mash that includes a protein rest for 20 to 30 minutes at 122 degrees F to break down the troublesome protein matrix. Certainly they are capable of being used in a side or mini mash for hybrid brewers without any issue.
